


Open your eyes

by Lonelyirises



Category: Sterek - Fandom, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Artist Derek, Artist Stiles Stilinski, Birthday Fluff, Birthday Presents, Broken Stiles Stilinski, Bullied Stiles Stilinski, Derek Feels, F/M, First Kiss, First Meetings, Hugs, Hurt Stiles, Hurt/Comfort, Lonely Stiles Stilinski, Love at First Sight, M/M, POV Alternating, Protective Derek, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John, Tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 07:05:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3519938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lonelyirises/pseuds/Lonelyirises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>this story is about a very broken Stiles and a very introverted Derek. #FeelsEverywhereFeels</p>
            </blockquote>





	Open your eyes

**Author's Note:**

> i posted this as a multi chaptered fic but being a rookie in here i think i accidentally deleted it. so re-posting it as a continuous one. sorry.

 

 

They were in the hospital, Laura and Derek, when a lanky teenager with a cast in his arm was wheeled on to the bed next to them. Derek had a minor cut on his arm because according to Laura, _someone wanted to rescue a cat trapped on a tree._ Derek denies any feline influences in his life.

The teenager was next in waiting where Derek was getting his arm stitched up. He looked at him. He had gorgeous eyes. But Derek had never seen any pair of eyes so lifeless. And those lips…

“Like what you see brother?” Laura smirked.

Oh holy hell. When Laura Hale smirks, the devil is going to have his popcorn basket ready.

“Laura, what are you gonna do!” hisses Derek

Laura, who claims to not have the Hale disease of social awkwardness, launched a conversation with the man accompanying the boy. Stiles. His name was Stiles. He was the Sherriff’s kid. And the man accompanying him was the said Sherriff’s deputy. Parrish. Apparently things got ugly at school and Stiles had been pushed over a flight of stairs. He had landed on his dominant arm.

Sometimes Derek really envies his sister’s ability to talk to complete strangers. And he doesn’t.

“This here, is my brother Derek, who owns an art studio just near the preserve”

Smooth Laura, very smooth. Derek mentally faceplams.

But the kid’s eyes rise up. So far, like Derek he hasn’t been taking part in the conversation.

“Uh…Hi” Derek offers.

“You are an artist?” Stiles eyes go wider. Is it even possible?

“Yes.”

“Do you wanna maybe come by, uh I can show you around.”

There is a slight uptick of the boy’s lips, and the next second, it’s gone.

“I don’t know, maybe” he mumbles.

Derek’s stiches are done. They both get up and say goodbye. Laura gets Parish’s number. Derek couldn’t even make Stiles smile. Life is so unfair.

_***_

 

Its been a week since the hospital, and Derek cannot focus on anything. He tries drawing his eyes a thousand times and fails each time. They haunt him. He cannot sleep. Geez Hale, get a grip, he thinks.

Just as he is about to give up on yet another halfassed attempt, he hears a car pulled up at the entrance. It’s the Sherriff’s cruiser. And along with the sherriff it’s STILES!

Derek’s heart skips a beat. What the hell did Laura do? He opens the front door at the knock.

“Are you Mr. Hale?”

“Yes”

“Uh… Hello, I am John Stilinski and this is my son Stiles. I believe you have met.”

“Yes sir, we have” Derek observes Stiles is looking anywhere but at both the men.

“Stiles here is very talented…”

“You said I could look around, right?” Stiles butts in. His dad is frowning.

“Oh yes, of course” Derek understands he is missing something but he lets it go. He ushers both the men in.

“Oh no, sorry but cant come. But somebody will come to get Stiles back in an hour, is that ok kid?”

Stiles gives a small nod. And he waves at his father.

“So are you interes…”

“You don’t have to do it” Stiles says it bitterly.

Derek gives him a questioning look.

“You don’t have to do this. It was a shitty excuse. I just wanted to be out of the house and out of my dad’s hair for a while” Stiles blurts out.

Derek still hasn’t understood it all but that look he gets. That’s the look of self -loathing.

“Stiles, I can understand if you don’t want to look around, but you’ll have to hang out with me for an hour. So what do you want to do?”

Stiles looks at him incredulously.

“You seriously don’t mind?”

“What I was a teenager once, I came up with shitty excuses too.” Derek smiles.

Stiles smiles back. _He smiled at you._

Derek ushers him in again. They are walking the hallway when Stiles says,

“You got it all wrong you know, I like… I really love art. Well, I used to. And I know you are popular among the folks and I would have been dying for this tour a week ago.”

“Used to? Used to love art?”

“Yeah, now it just makes me bitter.”

“ART makes you bitter?” Derek was surprised.

“You wont get it.”

Derek lets it slide. The poor boy looks so sad; Derek wants to kiss his lips to smile. They move around. After the initial awkwardness gone, stiles proves to be…umm mouthy. He talks endlessly about a Scott McCall, his girlfriend Allison, the lacrosse team at high school. Sometimes Stiles talks with so much passion and jerks to a stop. Derek doesn’t give him hard time about it. Jackson, Lydia and art in general are supposedly the sore spots for the teen.

Stiles looks at a painting. It is an old one. It has a mountain cliff against the blue night sky and a silhouette of a lone wolf howling at the full moon. Stiles spends a solid five minutes mesmerized looking at it.

“It is beautiful. So beautiful”, he whispers.

Derek can’t take his eyes off him. Such a beautiful soul, damaged and broken, right in front of him. Stiles’ cast is white. Too clean. No writing. Derek can see loneliness in his eyes. He noticed the sad undertone that came with all the high school stories of Scott.

Stiles looks back at him. His bambi eyes wide. _So vulnerable._ Derek is speechless. He needs Stiles to smile. His heart aches to see him so broken.

 

There is a knock on the door. The moment is broken. They hadn’t realized they were leaning into each other. That must be Stiles’ dad’s deputy. Derek’s hour is up. This is all he gets. No. _NO…_

Before they go to the door, he grabs stiles hand.

“I want to draw you.” Derek blurts.

“Me?” Stiles is taken aback.

“Yes you.” Derek’s heart is beating fast.

“Ummm… well I m free on Tuesday evenings?” Stiles offers

“Works, that works.”

And they open the door to a bored looking deputy.

“Ah… Stiles there you are. I hope you had fun.” He smiles at him and nods at Derek.

 ***

Tuesdays were the best days of Derek’s week. Weekends included. Stiles comes after school. For the first few weeks someone had to come to pick him, but soon enough the cast was removed and he could drive that monstrosity he calls a jeep.

“Not everyone drives a camero, sourbutt”

And so Stiles being Stiles he cant sit still for 3 seconds, it is infuriating (and cute) the banter that follows which then leads to 45 seconds of stillness. Derek finally got to paint Stiles eyes. And he refuses to show it to him. Just NO.

It is crazy to see how many lengths Stiles goes to sneak in the studio and dig when he thinks Derek isn’t looking. It’s the childlike innocence of him that makes Derek want to… _Derek doesn’t know what Derek wants!_ And that’s how for a few weeks Derek gets to spend his Tuesday evenings with Stiles. He has started to hate Wednesdays. Like really. Hate. Them.

“Oh so today is Wednesday.” Laura sighs dramatically as she sits on the kitchen counter. Derek looks at her. She points at the egg broken outside the frying pan and raises an eyebrow.  He can swear she knows. 

“What? I wasn’t looking… wait what did you jus say?”

“DerBer as much as I hate to say this, but I have noticed you are more of an asshole than usual on Wednesdays” _she totally knows._

“That’s not true, wait, I’m not an asshole”

“Right.” Laura deadpans.

And Derek decidedly hates cleaning up broken eggs more than _Wednesdays._

Laura gets her coffee and starts off in a relatively serious tone.

“Derek I know you don’t like people butting their heads in your life, but I know what you do every Tuesday evenings…” _I knew it! She knows_ “… And yes, we are talking about It.” she points the sofa. Derek sighs and complies.

“So Stiles hun? Wanna tell me about him?”

“Laura he is smart, he loves reading, talkative, and you know I don’t like talkative people, but he the way he talks? Its like you can look into his soul and I think he likes art, like to draw you know and he has let it slip sometimes that he is bullied at school. And… why are you looking at me like that?”

“Derek” her voice was barely over a whisper. “You love him”

“I… uh… I do? Laura we barely know each other”

“I have never seen you talk about someone like that. And your face, when you talk about him, it lights up like Christmas. I know you guys barely know each other, but you love him regardless”

Derek’s cheeks had started to heat up. His ears became pink. _I love him. I love Stiles._

_***_

One Tuesday evening Stiles comes to the studio a little later than usual. Derek had tried his phone, which kept going to voicemail. When the familiar jeep rolls on the driveway, Derek breaths a sigh of relief.

“You are late today.”

“Derek can we not do it today? Can we just talk?”

Derek was taken aback. Stiles had a bruise forming below his eye and it looked like he was on the verge of tears.

“Of course”

Sitting on the floor with his back leaning on the wall he pated the floor next to him. Stiles sat.

“Derek have you ever felt like everything around you is too fast? Like spinning out of control? Everything you do is just because other people want you to do, ‘cause it’s the proper thing? And then you end up doing it anyway but still people talk”

His voice breaks at that and Derek cannot take it anymore. He holds his face in his hands and pulls him over on his chest. Stiles sobs quietly. Derek cards his fingers in his hair.

“Stiles, do you want to tell me what happened?”

“You remember I fell off a flight of stairs? It was because I wanted to join the art club at school. But Jackson and his jock friends found out. They were harassing me and it happened. I fell on my right hand, my dominant hand. I cannot draw anymore. Hell I don’t want to. I wanted to show them that I haven’t given up. So I joined the lacrosse team. Its violent Derek, and they give me a hard time. I don’t think I can handle it anymore.”

“Stiles, Stiles look at me. Listen, did you tell this to your dad? He is the Sherriff damn it, he can make Jackson pay”

“Jackson’s dad is the chief prosecutor of Beacon Hills, you think the County’s Sherriff can do anything? Plus my dad has blood pressure, I don’t want him to worry about me”

Derek could not believe it. They are hurting Stiles right in front of people. In front of him. And he cannot do anything. Derek has never felt so helpless in his life.

“Stiles you should not do something that you don’t want to, it will just hurt you more.” He says lightly touching Stiles’ bruised cheekbone. Stiles leans into the touch.

“I want to show them I m not a loser”

“You are not a loser, Stiles. You are an amazing person.”

“Right”

“No I’m not joking, can you name one person from the jocks who has read as many books as you have? One person who matches your GPA, hell one person who matches your sarcasm?”

Stiles chuckles at that. “What else do you like about me Derek?” he asks though tears

“Your eyes” Derek blurts out. “You have beautiful eyes, Stiles.”

Stiles leans forward and presses his lips to Derek’s. So soft, softer than Derek had imagined. He deepens the kiss until Stiles opens his mouth and his tongue gently swipes at Derek’s lips. That opens the floodgates and there are fireworks in Derek’s head. A few minutes later they both pull apart panting.

“That was awesome!” Stiles exclaims.

Derek ducks his head down and smiles.      

 ***

“Stiles I want to see your art” Derek has been badgering him for days.

“Yes Derek, I want to see the martians too” And Stiles has a different comeback for him every single day.

“Stiles” he dragges him towards him by snaking an arm around his waist “I’m serious”

 “You are the famous artist, hotshot,” he says while Derek is pressing soft kisses on his neck. “Derek, I suck.” Derek moves to nibble at his earlobe. “hmm… I have fantasies too about that”

“Get your mind out of the gutter… and… nnghh… get your mouth off me too, you are driving me crazy” Derek pulls off.

“Stiles please, please show me your art.” Derek attempts at a puppy face that used to work on his mom. Stiles’s eyes grow wide.

“That’s not fair Derek! Nobody can say no to that face”

Derek grabs his hand and pulls him towards the door. “ I heard a yes in there.”

After their first kiss, they started hanging out regularly. Sometimes at Derek’s studio where Derek painted, and resolutely not showing any of his Stiles inspired works, or at Derek’s and Laura’s apartment when Laura would be out working or at the movies, bowling alley or just about anywhere. But this should be their first time going to the Stilinski home except for the very (very _very_ ) awkward dinner the Stilinskis hosted for the Hales and deputy Parrish. Derek still wonders if Laura is going out with Parrish only to keep tabs on him and Stiles. Because stiles wouldn’t shut up to his dad who wouldn’t at his station, which would mean Laura gets to know. After the loss of their family Laura has become very protective of Derek. He doesn’t blame her.

He parks the camero on the Stilinski driveway and the jeep follows right behind him. Stiles is twitchy. More than how he usually is. He is fiddling with the key.

“Stiles what’s wrong?”

“Why do you want to see that one thing every other person mocks me for?”

“Because I want to know you, all of you.”

Stiles wraps his arms around Derek’s neck and presses his lips to his.

“Stiles, we are giving a show to your elderly neighbor over there” Derek pulls away. And Stiles is trying to open the lock with flushed cheeks. He lets him in and takes his hand. Together they climb the stairs and Stiles leads him into his bedroom. It is an average teenage bedroom of a boy. He carefully extracts a folder from the lowest drawer and places it over the bed in front of Derek.

“There, its all there”

Derek touches the folder almost reverently _. If Stiles had been hiding this, he has no idea how talented he is. And he is giving up?_

Amongst the collection there is a bird singing on a branch in monochrome. An angel looking forlorn. A calm river with a silhouette of a tiny boat at a distance.

It dawns to him that art is the way of Stiles’ expression. if anything, his art talks of his loneliness, his depth of character and his perspective towards things.

_He cannot stop!_

Derek meets Stiles’ expectant eyes. “This is incredible, Stiles! I really like it.”

Stiles smiles weakly. “I know you are going to try to make me not stop.”

Derek nods. “Derek you don’t get it. This is not how it was for you, in your private school. This stuff is painful memories for me. This stuff is why I was bullied.”

“What if you make good memories with ‘this stuff’? ‘Cause as far as I can see, ‘this stuff’ is who you are.”

“I can’t Derek” A lone tear slides on his cheek. Derek pulls him closer. Puts every unsaid thing in the hug. “Alright, I am with you whatever you choose. And I have something to tell you.” Stiles looks up at him. Derek kisses his nose and says “the gallery wants me to do a series on the boy I fell in love with”

“Are you serious.” Stiles is incredulous.

“Yes baby, more hours of endless sitting still for you and headaches for me.”

Stiles groans at that protesting loudly.

 ***

Stiles pov.

 It all starts with Laura’s text.

**Baby bro’s bday is on Friday nxt week. Make me proud <3**

Holy hell, that’s when you are going to tell me?!?! 8 days! Right. Totally no pressure.

Stiles cannot concentrate at school for a second. Thank god he withdrew from lacrosse a week ago, or today would have been a massacre. School gets over. He drives to the studio. Opening the unlocked door, he lets himself in. Derek is drawing with charcoal. His attention is unwavering. Stiles marvels at how Derek gets sucked in into the world. The way his hands move fluidly with confident strokes. It is a beautiful sight to watch Derek work.

Stiles tiptoes his way in to look at the drawing behind Derek’s back. And it’s him. It is a drawing of stiles looking away from the viewer. The eyes look glazed. _Oh my god it’s the drawing of stiles when he told Derek Scott does not live in Beacon Hills anymore._ It is the same park they went that day in the background. Stiles does not know how to react. It dawns to him that Stiles has become Derek’s world. Derek can capture every moment of Stiles’ life with one glance. That’s the time when Stiles realizes they both are equally deep in the pit called love.

Well that makes gift hunting extra hard. _Wonderful._ It is Monday when he makes up his mind. _There is one single most thing Derek cares about, more than Stiles._

 

Derek pov.

It’s Friday November 7. But Derek has been against the cake and celebration since he was a child. According to Laura you need to talk to people when you throw a party. Good awesome. So Laura always got a birthday bash and Derek got quiet family dinners at the restaurant of his choice. Since the demise of their family Derek prefers to be left alone on his birthdays.

There is a knock at the apartment’s door at 10 am in the morning. Derek opens the door to find Stiles.

“Happy Birthday!”

“Uh… thank you. But Stiles what are you doing here? Don’t you have school?”

“I can ditch one day, my grades are perfect. Now are you going to make out with me or what?” Derek yanks him in and kicks the door shut. He holds his face in his hands and kisses him softly at first. Which turns fast and hungry in no time.

“Stiles we should…uuh…stop” _before I start thinking with the wrong head._ Stiles smirks. “I got something for you, sourwolf” Stiles goes in and sits on the couch.

“Oh you really didn’t have to” Derek follows.

“Yeah right and feed my head to your sister, no thank you”

“Laura? What did Laura do?” Derek asks wearily.

“Nothing nothing, here” Stiles hands him a white envelope. Derek takes it with narrowed suspicious eyes. He opens it and pulls out a folded paper.

And Derek cannot believe his eyes. It is an appointment letter to the physiotherapist Stiles had been constantly declining to go. To stop the tremors in his hand. _To draw._ Derek looks up to meet his eyes. Stiles is smiling.

“Yes that’s right, to precious to give up. I want my art back”

Derek is speechless. He cannot form a thought. Can someone go comatose with too much happiness? Stiles is no longer depressed. His eyes are no longer lifeless. He is vibrant with energy. _With hope._ My Stiles is not giving up. This is the world’s best gift ever.

“I love you Stiles.”

“I love you Derek, more than anything”

_no hesitation. Yep… definitely going comatose._


End file.
